Snap Franchising signs up to international alliance

Australian print business Snap Franchising has formed an alliance with two of North America's prominent print and design groups to boost the global reach of the three companies.

The new alliance, ASP3, comprises Snap, US business Allegra Network and Canadian company Print Three.

Stephen Edwards, Snap CEO, said "I cannot overstate what a major step forward this is for us. While we're very well established and trusted in this country as a print, design and website provider, this alliance will allow us to benefit from global insight and technology from two of the true market leaders.

"For our franchisees it means the chance to aggressively grow and expand with a growing portfolio of new products and services."

Between the two North American firms there are more than 600 business units that work with more than one million small business customers worldwide.

Benefits of the alliance include global procurement opportunities, benchmarking and scalability. But there will also be market insights, international research and development, skills sharing and access to new marketing and print concepts to be shared among the three parties.

The new ASP3 forms part of Snap's wider strategy to own the print,design and website market for the small and growing business.

The Allegra Network of companies links more than 550 franchised sites in North America and the UK, offering print, marketing and graphic communications.

Print Three has 46 locations across Canada, and provides digital print services for SMEs.

Snap has 179 franchised outlets in Australia, New Zealand, China and Ireland.